Why Was Prince Charles Upset with William and Kate Right After Their Wedding?
By Josh Duboff. Photos: Getty Images.
There is a new biography of Prince Charles out—Sally Bedell Smith’s Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life (that title re-jolts us each and every time)—and the tidbits and anecdotes from it continue to roll in.
We have already learned, via the book, about Charles’s wedding night, and also what the time table might be for William taking the throne. Now the latest bit relates to Charles’s feelings about the great shining hope for the future of the royal family—the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge—and specifically his feelings right after the two were married in 2011.
Per Bedell Smith’s account, Charles was not pleased when Kate and William ventured to Canada and Los Angeles two months after their wedding in 2011 for a series of events tailor-made for dazzling photo ops (they were in cowboy hats! They were in glam Hollywood attire! and so on . . .).
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Charles, again according to Bedell Smith, felt that the tour was “tasteless” (yikes!) and he was “more than a little irked,” as he felt that the young pair was essentially treating the royal tour like their private vacation. (They had been allowed to take on a more relaxed itinerary, with the guidance of the Canadian secretary to the Queen, and did not have a particularly formalized schedule while in North America.)
Royal writer Phil Dampier had explained to the Mirror in 2011 that there was likely some jealousy on Charles’s part, as he and Camilla, when they had ventured to Canada, had not been greeted by fanfare as intense as that which surrounded William and Kate during their visit. “Charles felt overshadowed by Diana and now it seems he feels overshadowed by their son. Some people may think he is jealous. I have always felt that as soon as William got married, Charles would feel sidelined.”
All these book details are no doubt making for some awkward breakfasts at the palace this week. “Kate, should we cancel on my dad for lunch, or . . .?” “I don’t know, William,” she responds, handing George his toast. “I really don’t know.”
This story originally appeared on Vanity Fair.
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